At Scene75, Be a Kid (or Bring Your Kids)

The entertainment center in Edgewood is a great time with or without little ones.

BY SEAN COLLIER

November 16, 2018

Photo courtesy Scene75

I am aware that gleefully driving a Go-Kart as an adult who can, at any time, drive an actual car is odd.

But having exited a full-size (OK, compact) vehicle to walk into Scene75 Entertainment Center and immediately paid $8 for the privilege of driving a much smaller vehicle, I can report that driving a Go-Kart is still really fun. It’s rare, in your mid-30s, to reclaim the feeling of tearing around the neighborhood far too fast on a trusty bicycle; hugging the turns inside Scene75, that’s how I felt.

Scene75 is the Pittsburgh outpost of a chain of family-skewed entertainment destinations; think Dave & Busters with less food and more attractions. It’s located in the hollowed-out shell of a former K-Mart in Edgewood Towne Center.

Usually, when I visit places like this, I think, “Sure, this is a fine place for families to amuse their kids for a while.” I won’t drag any local examples by putting them here, but you know what I mean — the kind of place where kids can tire themselves out at a variety of high-energy mayhem while the adults can, blessedly, get a beer and watch from a safe distance.

That’s not Scene75. At Scene75, I thought, “I wanna come back here with friends.”

Perhaps my enthusiasm would’ve been muted had I been surrounded by rampaging preteens; the place was a little quiet during my visit. But between the sprawling fleet of arcade games and the virtual-reality room, I might not have noticed; I’m pretty sure that this stuff is fun enough for me to ignore the occasional 6-year-old running mindlessly into my leg.

About those games: Things got interesting in the arcade world while none of us were looking. Many of the games at Scene75 more closely recall carnival contests than old-school arcade fodder. Should you manage to hit a ticket jackpot (which is a lot like a gambling jackpot, but more wholesome), there’s a slew of actual valuables to save up for — autographed memorabilia, video game systems and more.

Beyond that, though, there are more attractions at Scene75 than you’d even anticipate while you’re standing in it. There’s that VR room, offering a virtual game of capture the flag, a two-story laser tag arena (another technology that has advanced considerably since I was a lad), bumper cars — actual, Kennywood-style bumper cars, and 18 holes of trippy blacklight miniature golf.

There are some food options — Scene75 advertises a “food truck alley,” but that’s actually hype for a dressed-up concession stand — but there’s also a full bar smack in the middle of the room. Parents will be able to sip a beer while watching their kids frolic; grown-ups out on date nights can drift between the bar and the games.

If you’re not one to lose a couple hours when the prospect of skee-ball and arcade basketball is presented, that’s fine; I imagine other adults enjoy different pastimes. (Golf? Probably golf. Go to TopGolf, I guess.) But if you miss the arcades of your youth — or if you just miss your youth — Scene75 is a fine place for a night out.

In a season that remarkably could still go either way as Christmas approaches, we’re about to find out if Mike Tomlin still has the coaching chops that have allowed him to succeed at such a high level for so long.